The present invention relates to a molecular structure of carbon atoms and a cluster of carbon molecules and a method for constructing the same.
As conventional molecular structures of carbon atoms, there are known diamond, graphite and soot. Recently there are further known a series of buckminsterfullerene molecules found by H. W. Kroto et al. and described in Nature, Vol. 318, pp. 162-163, 1985, and carbon nano-tubes found by Iijima and described in Nature, Vol. 354, pp. 56-58, 1991. Each of these carbon molecules is constructed in the form of a carbide compound. As proposed by David Vanderbilt and J. Tersoff and described in Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 68, pp. 511-513, 1992, there is known the fact that a material constituted by carbon atoms arranged on a periodic minimum plane exists theoretically.
In the molecular structures proposed in the prior art, mechanically sufficient strength cannot be obtained and hence there arises a problem that the molecular structures cannot be applied to any dynamic mechanical element. It has been thought of that a structure in which carbon atoms are arranged in the form of a torus is suitable for solution of the problem. There has not been, however, any proposal of a stable structure of a cluster of carbon atoms arranged in the form of a torus. On the other hand, although a cluster of carbon atoms having a cylindrically helical structure has been proposed, there has not been any proposal of a helical structure having mechanically sufficient strength.